Contrato Hard Gay

The most well-known character developed and portrayed by Sumitani is Hard Gay (ハードゲイ ,Hādo Gei?), introduced in 2002, as whom he finally rose to national prominence in 2005. While the official name is "Razor Ramon HG," he is most frequently known as "Hard Gay," or simply "HG." Dressing in a tight black PVC gay fetish outfit, he goes around performing acts of charity (yonaoshi, “social improvement”) for unsuspecting bystanders while performing trademark pelvic thrusts and vocalizations, often accompanied by "Livin’ la Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin.A picture of Hard Gay without his glasses or hat, rarely seen during broadcasts.

According to some accounts the name "Hard Gay" was the suggestion of Sumitani’s senior comedian in the Yoshimoto Kogyo group, Kendo Kobayashi, in reference to his hard dancing. The name has also been described as a pun on 芸, gei, which means "skill" or "art." However, to develop his character, Sumitani visited gay bars in Doyama-cho, Osaka’s biggest gay area, and his costume, which consists of hot pants, a small vest, and cap, all in black PVC, along with aviator sunglasses, was purchased at a shop called VFTQ in Minami-Horie, Osaka, which specializes in gay fashion. Hard Gay makes regular use of a number of catch phrases in his act; he usually makes his entrance in front of the camera shouting "Dōmō Hādogei dēsu" ("Hello, this is Hard Gay"), with arms thrust out and a spin afterwards. His self-introduction is then followed by his famous dance moves. He often shouts "Hoooooo" (フゥ～!) or "Foohhhh!" (フォー！), a running joke in his performances. He often stops people saying unfavorable things to him by shouting "Sei sei sei sei sei" with his palm in front of the person’s face. Whether this means anything is debatable, although Sumitani has commented that "sei sei" is something that comes out from his mouth when he is not happy, and that he does not mean "say" as in to speak something, although one might compare this action to the popular "talk to the hand" gesture. A possible interpretation might be that the origin lies in the word urusai (lit. "noisy," meaning "Be quiet!"), which is often pronounced urusē うるせー in Kansai dialect, shortened to sei. Another theory is the word sei written by kanji 静, meaning "quiet." Also, sei 性, means "sex" or "gender" in Japanese.

Sumitani’s supposed homosexuality was exposed as a gimmick when he was caught in the midst of a date, with Japanese actress and swimsuit model Anna Suzuki whom he has since married. He has been criticised for his stereotypical depiction of gay men and for building a career on parodying a social minority with bizarre and extreme antics. A spokesperson for the Hokkaido Sexual Minority Association Sapporo Meeting, a support group for gay, lesbian and transgender people, has said: "Hard Gay’s acceptance by the Japanese public shows me that there is a strong tendency here to see homosexuality as something to be laughed at. That is sad." Openly lesbian Osaka Prefectural Assembly woman Kanako Otsuji has been quoted as saying:

[The way the media treats sexual minorities] makes me angry. This morning I saw [comedian] Razor Ramon for the first time. I never watch TV. I’d only heard about him. He’s not homosexual. He just uses gayness for his act, to make people laugh. I’m afraid that people will get the idea that gay people are all like that, yelling and pumping their hips.

He then announced that he would start to reappear on television as Masaki Sumitani instead of the famous Razor Ramon HG. His first reappearance as Masaki Sumitani was April 18, 2008 on jidaigeki, HAKANA.

Professional wrestling career

While at college he picked up wrestling as a hobby and soon joined the Doshisha Professional Wrestling Alliance (DWA). Under his performing name "GiveUp Sumitani," he won the heavy class Kyoto pro-wrestling championship co-hosted by DWA and the Ritsumeikan Wrestling Alliance (RWA) of nearby Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. Former IWGP Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi was also a participant of these events.

Sumitani continued his wrestling aspirations in late 2005, working in the comedically off-beat HUSTLE promotion and defeating Yinling the Erotic Terrorist in his debut match; he has since gone to team with Naoya Ogawa and Yoshihiro Tajiri in leading the HUSTLE Army against Generalissimo Takada’s Monster Army.

In early 2006, he started working with Razor Ramon manzai partner Makoto Izubuchi again, with Izubuchi taking the name Razor Ramon RG ("RG" meaning "Real Gay"). He was brought in on the gimmick after it gained immense popularity. Izubuchi’s character was not nearly as well received as Sumitani’s, but is still an active wrestler in HUSTLE, recently teaming up with The Great Muta. Sumitani's character is that of an underdog face that has a never say die attitude and uses his quickness to defeat his opponents which are larger than him. Daily Sports in Japan reported that Razor Ramon HG retired from pro wrestling after Hustle Mania, which took place November 23, 2006 at Yokohama Arena with Sumitani being defeated by The Esperanza. However, as with most retirements in wrestling, Sumitani returned to action, wrestling at Hustle 21 on March 18 and Hustle 22 on April 21